What is Dyslexia

Dyslexia means the inability to master language. In practice, however, the term refers
to people who have extreme difficulty acquiring the ability to read and spell. Specifically,
people with dyslexia have trouble learning the code for written language. Difficulty
in sounding out words and spelling words persists, despite effort on the part of teachers
and the learner. The person with dyslexia demonstrates a number of characteristics
associated with difficulty learning to read and write. Dyslexia is found in families
across the full range of socioeconomic backgrounds in society.

No generally accepted definition of dyslexia exists in the world! Only recently has
a definition for dyslexia been adopted as a working definition by the National Institute
for Child Health and Human Development:

"Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is
characterized by difficulties with accurate and / or fluent word recognition and by
poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit
in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to
other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary
consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience
that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge."

Adopted by the International Dyslexia Association (IDA) Board of Directors, Nov.
12, 2002. This definition is also used by the National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development (NICHD).

The most common form of dyslexia is associated with the phonological core deficit referred to in the definitions above. People with this disability have extreme difficulty
isolating and sequencing syllables and sounds in words. At the syllable level, this
results in mixing up the order of syllables in a word or omitting a syllable -- saying
or writing "intimate" for "imitate", "agate" for "applegate", "Willim for William",
"intivation" for "invitation". At the sound (phoneme) level, the phonological core
deficit results in extreme difficulty learning to pair letters of the alphabet with
speech sounds (referred to as acquiring the alphabetic principle) and sequencing letters
or sounds to produce words. For example, saying or writing "lello" for "yellow", writing
"hlep" for "help", saying "patter" for "platter", writing "cooper" for "copper".